David X. Prutting/BFA

Caroline Polachek

November 24, 2008

AGE: 23. HOMETOWN: Riverside, Connecticut. CURRENTLY LIVES IN: I actually don’t live anywhere. I live on the road. The last place I lived was in my boss’s apartment for the summer-an artist’s studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. OCCUPATION: Member of the band Chairlift.

Designer Adoptions

November 24, 2008

Everyone has fantasized about being adopted by a rich, powerful parent. Lately that dream has been coming true for some of the world’s most talented, independent designers as theymake a big family brand more interesting.

Damien Hirst

November 23, 2008

First he outraged art audiences in the early ’90s with works like his shark in formaldehyde. (The New York city department of health banned one piece on the grounds that it might induce vomiting.) Then he outraged critics with tactics like decorating a cast of a human skull with 8,601 diamonds worth more than $20 million. Now, the ultimate British bad boy has outraged dealers by skipping the gallery and selling his work at auction. He may have just been making a little Hirst-style mischief— or changing the state of the art market forever.

Cate Blanchett

November 23, 2008

The fair chameleon Ms. Blanchett doesn’t have anything against being a movie star. But complaining about the paparazzi, offering empty platitudes about her co-stars, and ruminating on the differences between Los Angeles and New York isn’t her game. That’s why she’s on the cover of our art issue. And because not once in the conversation that follows does she mention the word art. Yet that’s what the interview is all about. .